Door glass raising and falling apparatus

ABSTRACT

The door glass raising and falling apparatus comprises a carrier plate  71  to be mounted onto the lower end portion  70   b  of a door glass  70 . The door glass  70  is capable of rising and falling along sashes  41, 42  respectively disposed in the front and rear portions of a door. The carrier plate  71  extends in the back-and-forth direction of the door glass  70  along the lower end of the door glass  70  and includes securing portions respectively formed in the given portions of the carrier plate  71 , while the moving portions  67   a   , 67   b  of a wire-rope body  67  can be respectively fixed to the securing portions of the carrier plate  71 . The carrier plate  71  further comprises a glass support portion  74  for supporting the middle portion of the lower end of the door glass  70  in the back-and-forth direction thereof, and a pair of front and rear glass fixing portions  77, 78  each including a screw member  75 . In the door glass  70 , there are formed mounting holes which can be supported by the glass fixing portions  77, 78 , respectively. The dimension of each of the mounting holes is set sufficiently larger than the outside diameter of the shaft portion of each of the screw members  75  so that, when the screw members  75  are loosened, the door glass  70  can be moved with respect to the carrier plate  71 . Also, the door glass raising and falling apparatus further comprises a wire-rope body  150  for raising and falling a glass rising and falling body  162 . The wire-rope body  150  is wired over and between a plurality of pulleys. Of these pulleys, pulleys  142, 143 , which are situated on the lower side, are rotatably mounted on frame members  136, 137  by pulley shafts  182  respectively. Rubber stoppers  184  are mounted on the pulley shafts  182 , respectively. The rubber stoppers  184  are structured such that, when the glass rising and falling body  162  reaches its falling limit, the lower end face of the glass rising and falling body  162  can be contacted with the rubber stoppers  184.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a door glass raising and fallingapparatus and,. in particular, to a door glass raising and fallingapparatus suitable for use in a car.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] Conventionally, in a vehicle such as a car, various kinds of doorglass raising and falling apparatus for raising and falling a door glasshave been proposed and put to practical use.

[0005] For example, in JP-A-10-102902 (Related art 1), there isdisclosed a structure in which a door glass is slidably supported byfront and rear sashes, carrier plates are secured to a pair of front andrear wire-rope moving portions, and the front and rear portions of thedoor glass are supported by the carrier plates.

[0006] Also, in JP-A-11-44151 (Related art 2), there is disclosed astructure in which the front and rear portions of a door glass arerespectively supported by a pair of front and rear glass support memberswhich are respectively secured to a pair of front and rear wire-ropemoving portions, and the door glass is raised and fallen along a pair offront and rear guide rails which are respectively disposed so as toextend in the vertical direction.

[0007] In the door glass raising and falling apparatus according to therelated art 1, in a state before the door glass is assembled to the pairof front and rear carrier plates, not only the front and rear carrierplates can be rotated around the axes of their associated wire ropesindependently and can be moved relatively freely in the back-and-forthdirection of a door as well as in the deep direction of the door, butalso the door glass is easy to incline in the vertical direction whenthe door glass is viewed from the side surface thereof. To assemble thedoor glass to the front and rear carrier plates in such unstable state,an operator must match the position and attitude of one carrier plate tothe door glass before the one carrier plate is assembled to the doorglass and, after then, the other carrier plate must be assembled to thedoor glass similarly, with the result that it takes time and labor toassemble the door glass to the front and rear carrier plates.

[0008] On the other hand, in the door glass raising and fallingapparatus according to the related art 2, when the door glass rises andfalls along the vertically extending guide members, the front and rearend edges of the door glass move in the vertical direction along thefront and rear sashes of the door and, therefore, in case where theguide plates are not arranged parallel to the sashes with accuracy,unfavorably, not only the door glass cannot be raised and fallensmoothly, but also an excessive stress is applied to the door glass.Further, since there are required two fairly long guide members, notonly the number of parts is large but also there is a disadvantage inreducing the weight of the door glass raising and falling apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] It is an object of the invention to provide a door glass raisingand falling apparatus which is simple in structure and easy to assemble.

[0010] In attaining the above object, according to a first aspect of theinvention, there is provided a door glass raising and falling apparatus,in which the lower end portion of a door glass is supported by a carrierplate extending in the back-and-forth direction of the door glass, and,by raising and falling the front and rear moving portions of a wire-ropebody using a motor, the door glass can be moved in the verticaldirection while it is guided along sashes respectively disposed in thefront and rear portions of a door. The carrier plate includes a pair offront and rear securing portions respectively formed at given portionsthereof. That is, the carrier plate can be mounted on the front and rearmoving portions of the wire-rope body in a stable manner through thepair of front and rear securing portions thereof, while assembling ofthe door glass to the carrier plate is also easy.

[0011] Also, according to a second aspect of the invention, there isprovided a door glass raising and falling apparatus, in which, to adjustthe attitude of a door glass, before the screw members disposed in theglass fixing portions of a carrier plate are tightened, the door glassis raised toward an upper sash provided in a door. Since the door glasscan be inclined in the vertical direction along the surface of the doorglass with the glass support portion of the carrier plate as the fulcrumthereof, at the time when the upper edge of the door glass is pressedagainst the upper sash, the attitude of the door glass can be adjustedautomatically in such a manner that the whole upper edge of the doorglass can be contacted uniformly with the upper sash. In this state, bytightening the screw members, the door glass can be fixed to the sashand carrier plate in its normal attitude. In this case, in case wherethe glass support portion is situated below the center of gravity of thedoor glass, in the above attitude adjustment, the door glass can beinclined easily with the glass support portion as the fulcrum thereof,thereby being able to facilitate the adjustment of the attitude of thedoor glass.

[0012] Further, according to a third aspect of the invention, there isprovided a door glass raising and falling apparatus, in which, when adoor glass reaches its bottom dead center, a glass rising and fallingbody is contacted with rubber stoppers respectively disposed in theirassociated pulley shafts, so that the glass raising and falling body ismade to stop while compressing the rubber stoppers. At the then time,the glass rising and falling body is supported through the rubberstoppers by the pulley shafts. That is, since a power transmissionpassage for receiving the glass rising and falling body consistssubstantially only of the pulley shafts, the power transmission passageis very short. And, a force applied in the rubber stopper depressingdirection and a force applied in the pulley raising direction, that is,a force for driving the wire-rope body upwardly cancel each otherthrough the pulley shafts, which makes it possible to stop the glassrising and falling body positively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013]FIG. 1 is a side view of a door module including a door glassraising and falling apparatus according to a first embodiment of theinvention, when it is viewed from outside a vehicle.

[0014]FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a vehicle door includingthe door module shown in FIG. 1, when it is viewed from inside thevehicle.

[0015]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the door module shown in FIG. 2,showing a state thereof in which it is inserted into a door panel.

[0016]FIG. 4 is a side view, enlarged in part, of the door raising andfalling apparatus included in the door module shown in FIG. 1.

[0017]FIG. 5 is a front view of a carrier plate used in the door raisingand falling apparatus shown in FIG. 4.

[0018]FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line F6-F6 shown inFIG. 4.

[0019]FIG. 7 is a section view taken along the line F7-F7 shown in FIG.4.

[0020]FIG. 8 is a section view of a carrier plate according to a secondembodiment of the invention.

[0021]FIG. 9 is a section view of a pulley unit and part of a glassrising and falling body according to a third embodiment of theinvention.

[0022]FIG. 10 is a front view of the pulley unit shown in FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0023] Now, description will be given below of a vehicle door includinga door glass raising and falling apparatus according to a firstembodiment of the invention with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7.

[0024] A car door 10 shown in FIG. 2 comprises a door panel unit 11 anda door module 12. The door panel unit 11 includes an outer panel 13forming the outer wall surface of the door 10, reinforcing members 14respectively provided on the inside of the vehicle for reinforcement ofthe outer panel 13, hinge members 15 respectively used to mount the door10 onto a vehicle body, and inner panels 20, 21, 22 respectivelyprovided on the peripheral edge portion (which is situated on the insideof the vehicle) of the outer panel 13.

[0025] On the other hand, the door module 12, as shown in FIG. 1,comprises a frame structure 40 which constitutes the skeleton of thedoor module 12. Since FIG. 1 is a side view of the door module 12 whenit is viewed from outside the vehicle, in FIG. 1, the right and leftposition relation is reversed with respect to FIGS. 2 and 3. The framestructure 40 is composed of a front sash 41 which is situated on thefront side of the vehicle, a rear sash 42 which is situated on the rearside of the vehicle, an upper sash 43 which is situated in theupper-most portion of the door module 12, an intermediate frame 44 whichis situated below of the upper sash 43 and extends in the horizontaldirection, and a lower frame 45 situated in the lower-most portion ofthe door module 12. The upper sash 43 has a shape which extends alongthe upper edge 70 a of a door glass 70 which will be discussed later.

[0026] As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, on the frame structure 40, there aremounted a door glass raising and falling mechanism 50, a door latchmechanism 51, and a latch operation mechanism (door inside handle) 52.The sashes 41, 42, 43, door glass raising and falling mechanism 50, anddoor glass 70 cooperate together in forming a door glass raising andfalling apparatus according to the invention.

[0027] To assemble the door module 12 into the door panel unit 11, therear end portion 12 a of the door module 12 may be firstly inserted intobetween the outer panel 13 and rear inner panel 20, and, after then, thefront end portion 12 b of the door module 12 may be moved from insidethe vehicle in a direction where it can be superimposed on the frontinner panel 21 of the door panel unit 11, so that, as shown in FIG. 3,the lower end portion 12 c of the door module 12 is dropped into betweenthe outer panel 13 and lower inner panel 22. And, the front end portion12 b of the door module 12 may be fixed using a bolt 53 and the rear endportion 12 a of the door module 12 may be fixed to the door panel unit11 using a bolt 54.

[0028] As shown in FIG. 1, the door glass raising and falling mechanism50 comprises a base plate 55 interposed between the intermediate frame44 and lower frame 45, and a pair of front and rear frames 56, 57 whichare fixed to the base plate 55 and extend in the vertical direction. Thelower end portions of the frames 56, 57 are respectively fixed to thelower frame 45. On the upper and lower end portions of the frames 56,57, there are disposed upper pulleys 60, 61 and lower pulleys 62, 63,respectively. Also, on the base plate 55, there are disposed a drivepulley 64 and a motor 65 for rotating the drive pulley 64. The motor 65is a DC motor with a reduction gear which can be operated on an on-boardbattery (not shown) and can be rotated forwardly and reversely.

[0029] On and over these pulleys 60-64, there is wound a wire-rope body67 composed of a wire cable such that it crosses itself in an X-shapedmanner. That is, the wire-rope body 67 includes a front-side movingportion 67 a drawn in the vertical direction between the front-sideupper and lower pulleys 60 and 62, a rear-side moving portion 67 b drawnin the vertical direction between the rear-side upper and lower pulleys61 and 63, a first slanting portion 67 c drawn slantingly between theupper pulley 61 and drive pulley 64, a second slanting portion 67 ddrawn slantingly between the lower pulley 62 and drive pulley 64, and athird slanting portion 67 e drawn slantingly between the upper pulley 60and lower pulley 63.

[0030] And, the first and second slanting portions 67 c, 67 d cross thethird slanting portion 67 e in an X-shaped manner. In the first andsecond slanting portions 67 c, 67 d, there are disposed tension members68, 69 which apply proper tensile forces to the whole wire-rope body 67to thereby absorb the extension and loosening of the wire-rope body 67.

[0031] A carrier plate 71 for supporting the door glass 70 is fixed tothe respective vertical-direction intermediate portions of thefront-side and rear-side moving portions 67 a and 67 b in such a mannerthat the carrier plate 71 extends substantially in the horizontaldirection. The details of the door glass 70 and carrier plate 71 will bediscussed later.

[0032] One end side of the wire-rope body 67, that is, the end portionof the first slanting portion 67 c is secured to the drive pulley 64,and the first slanting portion 67 c of the wire-rope body 67 is wound onthe drive pulley 64 by the length thereof that allows the rising andfalling stroke of the door glass 70. The other end side of the wire-ropebody 67, that is, the end portion of the second slanting portion 67 d isalso secured to the drive pulley 64, and the second slanting portion 67d of the wire-rope body 67 is wound on the drive pulley 64 by the lengththereof that allows the rising and falling stroke of the door glass 70.

[0033] Therefore, when the drive pulley 64 is rotated clockwise in FIG.4, the first slanting portion 67 c of the wire-rope body 67 is playedout from the drive pulley 64 and, at the same time, the second slantingportion 67 d of the wire-rope body 67 is taken up onto the drive pulley64, thereby causing the two moving portions 67 a, 67 b of the wire-ropebody 67 to move down in synchronism with each other, so that the carrierplate 71 and door glass 70 are moved down integrally with each other. Onthe other hand, when the drive pulley 64 is rotated counterclockwise,the first slanting portion 67 c of the wire-rope body 67 is taken uponto the drive pulley 64 and, at the same time, the second slantingportion 67 d of the wire-rope body 67 is played out from the drivepulley 64, thereby causing the two moving portions 67 a, 67 b of thewire-rope body 67 to move up in synchronism with each other, so that thecarrier plate 71 and door glass 70 are moved up integrally with eachother.

[0034] As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the carrier plate 71 extends in theback-and-forth direction of the door glass 70 along the lower end 70 eof the door glass 70 and, in the given portions of the carrier plate 71(for example, in the two front and rear portions of the carrier plate71), there are formed securing portions 72, 73 which are used to fix thetwo moving portions 67 a, 67 b of the wire-rope body 67. Also, in theintermediate portion of the carrier plate 71 in the longitudinaldirection thereof, there is formed a glass support portion 74. The glasssupport portion 74 is situated below the center of gravity of the doorglass 70.

[0035] In the two end portions of the carrier plate 71, there are formedglass fixing portions 77, 78 respectively including screw members 75(shown in FIG. 7). Also, between the glass support portion 74 and thesetwo glass fixing portions 77, 78, there are formed auxiliary supportportions 79, 80, respectively. In the proper portions of the carrierplate 71, there are formed thickness reducing holes 81 which are punchedout by pressing so as to reduce the weight of the carrier plate 71.

[0036] As shown in FIG. 6, the glass support portion 74 is formed bycutting and raising part of the carrier plate 71 into a hook-like shapefacing upwardly; and, by inserting the lower end portion 70 b of thedoor glass 70 from above the glass support portion 74, the lower end 70e of the door glass 70 can be supported from below by the bottom surface74 a of the glass support portion 74.

[0037] The auxiliary support portions 79, 80 are formed by cutting andraising part of the carrier plate 71 into hook-like shapes facingupwardly, and they are able to hold the door glass 70 between them inthe glass thickness direction. The bottom surfaces 79 a, 80 a of theauxiliary support portions 79, 80 are respectively situated at positionslower than the bottom surface 74 a of the glass support portion 74.Thanks to this, the lower end 70 e of the door glass 70 is held suchthat it floats up slightly from the bottom surfaces 79 a, 80 a of theauxiliary support portions 79, 80; and, therefore, substantially, onlythe bottom surface 74 a of the glass support portion 74 can be contactedwith the lower end 70 e of the door glass 70.

[0038] The door glass 70 and carrier plate 71 are respectively fixed inthe above-mentioned two glass fixing portions 77, 78 by the screwmembers 75 (such as bolts) and nuts 85 (shown in FIG. 7). Each screwmember 75 includes a shaft portion 90 to be inserted into a mountinghole 87 formed in the door glass 70, and the nut 85 can be threadedlyengaged with a male screw formed on the shaft portion 90. for fixing thedoor glass 70 to the carrier plate 71.

[0039] By inserting the lower end portion 70 b of the door glass 70 intothe glass support portion 74 and two auxiliary support portions 79, 80,the lower end 70 e of the door glass 70 is supported by the bottomsurface 74 a of the glass support portion 74. In this operation, thescrew members 75 of the glass fixing portions 77, 78 and nuts 85 are nottightened together but are held in a state where the door glass 70 isable to move in the vertical direction to a certain degree with respectto the carrier plate 71. And, the motor 65 is rotated in a directionwhere the door glass 70 can be raised, thereby raising the door glass 70fully to the upper sash 43.

[0040] Due to this, the upper edge 70 a of the door glass 70 iscontacted with the upper sash 43. At the then time, because the screwmembers 75 of the glass fixing portions 77, 78 are respectivelyloosened, the door glass 70 can be moved in the vertical direction alongthe surface of the door glass 70 with the glass support portion 74 asthe fulcrum thereof; and, therefore, in case where the upper edge 70 aof the door glass 70 is pressed against the upper sash 43, the attitude(the vertical-direction inclination along the glass surface) of the doorglass 70 can be adjusted automatically in such a manner that the wholeupper edge 70 a of the door glass 70 can be contacted with the uppersash 43 with no clearance between them.

[0041] In this state, that is, in a state where the attitude of the doorglass 70 is adjusted, by tightening the nuts 85 against the screwmembers 75 in the glass fixing portions 77, 78, the door glass 70 can befixed to the carrier plate 71. After the door glass 70 is fixed to thecarrier plate 71 in this manner, even in case where the door glass 70 ismoved down, the attitude of the door glass 70 can be maintained in thenormal state that is obtained after the adjustment thereof; and,therefore, in case where the door glass 70 is raised again up to thefully closed position thereof, the upper edge 70 a of the door glass 70can be contacted with the upper sash 43 uniformly with no clearancebetween them.

[0042] By the way, as in a second embodiment of the carrier plate 71shown in FIG. 8, the glass support portion 74 may also be formed so asto have a shape which can support the lower end 70 e of the door glass70 simply from below. Also, in carrying out the invention, of course,the respective elements of the invention including not only the doorglass and carrier plate but also the glass support portion, glass fixingportions, mounting hole, wire-rope body and sashes can be changedproperly.

[0043] Next, description will be given below of a third embodiment of adoor glass raising and falling apparatus according to the invention withreference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

[0044] In the present embodiment, on the lower portion of the door glassraising and falling apparatus, there are disposed pulley units 180, 181which respectively include the above-mentioned pulleys 142, 143.Referring to the structure of these pulley units 180, 181, as shown inFIG. 9 in which one of them is illustrated as their representative, eachpulley unit comprises two pulley shafts 182 respectively fixed to twoframe members 136, 137, two pulleys 142, 143 respectively mounted ontheir associated pulleys 182 in a freely rotatable manner, a stopperbracket 183 mounted on the pulley shaft 182, a rubber stopper 184 heldby the stopper bracket 183, and a guide member 185 for guiding thewinding of a wire-rope body 150. The stopper bracket 183 is molded in ashape which is capable of wrapping the lower portion side of the rubberstopper 184. The upper surface 184 a of the rubber stopper 184 shown inFIG. 10 may be formed corrugated. However, the rubber stopper 184 mayhave other suitable shapes such as a circular shape.

[0045] The rubber stopper 184 is situated at a position which is justbelow and opposed to the lower end surface 161 a of a carrier plate 161.That is, when a door glass 160 moves down to a given position, that is,the vicinity of the falling end thereof, the lower end surface 161 a ofthe carrier plate 161, namely, the lower end face of a glass raising andfalling body 162 can be contacted with the upper surface 184 a of therubber stopper 184.

What is claimed is:
 1. A door glass raising and falling apparatus,comprising: a door glass to rise or fall along sashes respectivelydisposed in front and rear portions of a door; a carrier extending in aback-and-forth direction of the door glass, the carrier mounted on alower end portion of the door glass, the carrier comprising a pluralityof securing portions each formed at a predetermined portion; and awire-rope body including a pair of front and rear moving portions to befixed to the plurality of securing portions, the pair of front and rearmoving portions being driven in synchronism with each other in adirection where the door glass rises or falls.
 2. The door glass raisingand falling apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the carriercomprises: a glass support portion for supporting a part of the loweredge portion of the door glass, and a front screw member and a rearscrew member, wherein two door glass holes and two carrier holesrespectively defined in the door glass and the carrier, the front screwmember is inserted into one of the two door glass holes and one of thetwo carrier holes, the rear screw member is inserted into the other ofthe two door glass member and the other of the two carrier member,wherein the dimension of each of the two door glass holes and twocarrier holes is set larger than the outside diameter of a shaft portionof each of the front and rear screw members to thereby allow the doorglass to move with respect to the carrier, and, in a state where thedoor glass is raised up to the position of an upper sash of the door,the screw members are tightened to thereby fix the door glass to thecarrier.
 3. The door glass raising and falling apparatus as set forth inclaim 2, wherein the glass support portion is disposed below a center ofgravity of the door glass.
 4. The door glass raising and fallingapparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein the glass support portion isdisposed almost in the middle portion of the door glass in theback-and-forth direction thereof.
 5. The door glass raising and fallingapparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein the carrier comprises a glassauxiliary support portion, wherein a clearance is formed between thelower edge portion of the door glass and the glass auxiliary supportportion under a condition that the door glass is supported by the glasssupport portion.
 6. The door glass raising and falling apparatus as setforth in claim 2, wherein the carrier is formed by a plate and the glasssupport portion is formed by cutting and raising a part of the carrierinto a hook shape.
 7. A door glass raising and falling apparatus,comprising: a glass rising and falling body to rise and fall alongsashes respectively disposed in front and rear portions of a door; awire-rope body connected to the glass rising and falling body and wiredbetween, the wire-rope body for driving the glass rising and fallingbody; a plurality of pulley shafts respectively for supporting theplurality of pulleys in a freely rotatable manner; and, a plurality ofelastic stoppers respectively mounted on the plurality of pulley shafts,the plurality of elastic stoppers with which the lower end face of theglass rising and falling body is contacted when the glass rising andfalling body moves down to a predetermined position.
 8. The door glassraising and falling apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein theplurality of elastic stoppers are respectively made of resin material.9. The door glass raising and falling apparatus as set forth in claim 8,the plurality of elastic stoppers are made of material selected from thegroup consisting of synthetic rubber and synthetic resin elastomer. 10.The door glass raising and falling apparatus as set forth in claim 7,wherein the elastic stoppers are respectively made of a plurality ofsprings.
 11. The door glass raising and falling apparatus as set forthin claim 8, wherein the plurality of elastic stoppers respectivelyinclude a plurality of stopper brackets for supporting the lower portionof the resin material, and the plurality of stopper brackets arerespectively mounted on the plurality of pulley shafts.